Metamorphoses of biblical images in M. Gorky's epic novel "The Life of Klim Samgin" (Babylon and the Tower of Babel)

The purpose of the research is to comprehend the metamorphoses of the symbol image of Babylon and the winged expression "Tower of Babel" in M. Gorky's epic novel "The Life of Klim Samgin". The article examines the metamorphoses of images of Babylon and the Tower of Babel in the context of the narrative, analyzes associations, interpretations of the "Babylonian microtext" in the complex figurative system of the novel. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time it interprets the meanings of the inclusion of the biblical expression "The Tower of Babel" in the novel "The Life of Klim Samgin", taking into account the results of the latest literary works of the 21st century devoted to the biblical text, in the light of the leitmotif "the sacrifice of Abraham" (E. R. Matevosyan). As a result of the research, it was found that in the context of the events, the writer used the catch phrase "Tower of Babel" in the episode "destruction of the artillery barracks" to translate the narrative into a "utopian discourse." In the socio-cultural situation depicted by the author at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the symbol "Tower of Babel" reveals its meanings in contact with the theories of the Social Democrats (Kutuzov and his like-minded Marxists) who replaced the narodniks. The reader gets the meaning of this popular expression as the illusory nature of humanity's "utopian projects" and can predict the outcome of the plot, anticipating the logic of its development and the logic of the actions of the characters associated with the "Babylonian text".